David Perdue with his wife,
Lyzzette, in their Redondo Beach home; Torrance police fired on his
vehicle and rammed it Thursday in a case of mistaken identity. Perdue
suffered injuries in the collision but was not hit by gunfire.
(Genaro Molina, Los Angeles Times / February 9, 2013)

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By Robert Faturechi and Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times

February 9, 2013, 8:50 p.m.

David Perdue was on his way
to sneak in some surfing before work Thursday morning when police
flagged him down. They asked who he was and where he was headed, then
sent him on his way.

Seconds later, Perdue's attorney said, a Torrance police cruiser
slammed into his pickup and officers opened fire; none of the bullets
struck Perdue.

His pickup, police later explained, matched the description of the one belonging to Christopher Jordan Dorner
— the ex-cop who has evaded authorities after allegedly killing three
and wounding two more. But the pickups were different makes and colors.
And Perdue looks nothing like Dorner: He's several inches shorter and
about a hundred pounds lighter. And Perdue is white; Dorner is black.

"I don't want to use the word buffoonery
but it really is unbridled police lawlessness," said Robert Sheahen,
Perdue's attorney. "These people need training and they need restraint."

The incident involving Perdue was the second time police looking for
the fugitive former LAPD officer opened fire on someone else. The
shootings have raised concerns that the fear Dorner has instilled has
added another layer of danger.

"Nobody trains police officers to look for one of their own," said
Maria Haberfeld, a police training professor at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in New York. "I wouldn't want to be in their shoes and I
don't think anybody else would."

Torrance police said the officers who slammed into Perdue were
responding to shots fired moments earlier in a nearby area where LAPD
officers were standing guard outside the home of someone targeted in an
online manifesto that authorities have attributed to Dorner.

In the first incident, LAPD officers opened fire on another pickup
they feared was being driven by Dorner. The mother and daughter inside
the truck were delivering Los Angeles Times newspapers. The older woman
was shot twice in the back and the other was wounded by broken glass.

In Perdue's case, his attorney said he wasn't struck by bullets or
glass but was injured in the car wreck, suffering a concussion and an
injury to his shoulder. The LAX baggage handler hasn't been able to work since, and his car is totaled, Sheahen said.

"When Torrance issues this ridiculous statement saying he wasn't
injured, all they mean is he wasn't killed," his attorney said,
referring to a press release reporting "no visible injuries" to Perdue.

A department spokesman said Saturday that the shooting is still under
investigation. In a statement to The Times, the department said: "The
circumstances of the incident known to the responding officers would
have led a reasonable officer under normal circumstances — and these
were far from normal circumstances — to believe that fellow officers
were being shot at and that the vehicle traveling toward them posed a
serious risk.

"In the split seconds available to them," the statement continued,
"action was appropriate to intervene and stop the actions of the driver
of that vehicle."

According to the police department, Perdue's car was headed directly
for one of their patrol vehicles and appeared not to be yielding. When
the vehicles collided, Perdue's air bag went off, blocking the view of
the driver, and one officer fired three rounds.

The Torrance police chief apologized to Perdue and offered him a
rental car and payment for his medical expenses, the statement said.

Similarly, an LAPD spokesman said Saturday that Chief Charlie Beck
will provide a new truck to the two women injured by officers in pursuit
of Dorner.

Cmdr. Andrew Smith said he and Beck met separately with the two women
Saturday. The truck will be purchased using money from donors, Smith
said.

The action does not necessarily preclude a lawsuit from the women or a
settlement. The women's attorney, Glen T. Jonas, said, "The family
appreciates that Chief Beck apologized on behalf of the LAPD."

The search for Dorner has spanned the region, with authorities hoping
they had tracked Dorner down in Big Bear only for the trail to go cold
there. His alleged campaign to take revenge on those he blamed for his
dismissal from the LAPD has stoked fears among local police, many of
whom are involved in the search. The sense of chaos has been amplified
by police around the state and beyond being forced to chase down bogus
leads and erroneous sightings.

Connie Rice, a civil rights attorney, said it's not surprising when police make mistakes during manhunts.

"They don't know where he is, and they're going to be edgy and
jumpy," she said. "Don't get in their way. They're in a special state of
consciousness right now, and they're not used to being hunted."

Perdue's attorneys said their client was shot at without warning.

"As you know, officers of the Torrance Police Department attempted to
kill Mr. Perdue" Thursday, the attorneys wrote in a letter to the
agency's chief.

LAPD needs to be off this case and the Federal Government needs to take over ASAP

This might be a smart move. Especially if a lot of the reports are true. Between the truck in the mountains. The ammo/equipment dumped out at a dumpster next to a police station where a camera can see, and the boatman held hostage and left alive.

He said it was going to be a war of resources and of attrition. He is leaving them a lot of places to waste tremendous resources looking. An ocean is not a small or easier place to look if he gives a hint he will use the water.

The amount of Resources they have used looking for him in the mountains is immense. And taxing on the Police Officers out there in the cold looking for him.

LAPD needs to be off this case and the Federal Government needs to take over ASAP

This might be a smart move. Especially if a lot of the reports are true. Between the truck in the mountains. The ammo/equipment dumped out at a dumpster next to a police station where a camera can see, and the boatman held hostage and left alive.

He said it was going to be a war of resources and of attrition. He is leaving them a lot of places to waste tremendous resources looking. An ocean is not a small or easier place to look if he gives a hint he will use the water.

The amount of Resources they have used looking for him in the mountains is immense. And taxing on the Police Officers out there in the cold looking for him.

What it demonstrates is that either officers somehow aren't trained, ignore their training, OR that the training is to see a car that looks like that of the perp and execute those inside it. And then brush it off like no big deal.

Having grown up in the LA area, and having personal experiences with LAPD, there is a fine line between themselves and those they are supposed to protect us from.

Buffoonery is a pretty good description. LAPD has been out of control for decades. Seattle PD aren't much better and the Feds have recently stepped in to bring them to heel. Even SPD didn't shoot the wrong people when hunting for a cop killer a few years back. But they sure as hell pulled over every single matching the shooters description. They found the right guy after a few days and took him down in a John Woo style shoot out at his apt. complex. He's on trial now from the wheelchair they put him in.